>Interesting post! > In the Burgerbibliothek in Bern, >in the Vatican and in the Bibliotheque >Nationale (Paris, now called Bibli de >France)--I have seen Virgil codices >bearing musical notation, suggesting >the text was sung at one point. --?? > The transition from scroll to >codex makes me think that the early >commentaries (esp. Servius) became >_possible_ once the format changed-- >to improve cross-referencing? > R.C. >^^^^^^^^^^ >Dr. Raymond Cormier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Visiting Professor of French Dept. of English, Philosophy >Longwood College and Modern Languages >Farmville, VA 23909 USA (O) Tel. 804/395-2857 (p.m.) > FAX 804/395-2145
I would certainly be interested in hearing more about this notation. Is the music clearly mediaeval in origin? Or is there a possibility that it could survive from antiquity? Ancient Roman music seems to be very scarce. I think that early commentaries (as someone else has suggested) did not need the codex in order to exist; they occupied their own rolls. I wonder too whether the earliest Virgilian "commentary" -- certainly predating the codex -- was in fact a hypomnema produced by Varius and Tucca to explain their editorial choices; if, for example, they removed the Helen episode of Aeneid 2 but reported it in their hypomnema, this could explain the peculiarities of its survival and transmission. JLB James Lawrence Peter Butrica Department of Classics Memorial University St. John's, Newfoundland A1C 5S7 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
